Sound actuated fluid flow control apparatus



United States Patent 258,500 5/1882 Storer Inventor Cecil R. Cable 7924 Rowland Road, Edmonton, Alberta,

Canada Appl. No. 609,449 Filed Feb. 13, 1967 Patented Sept. 29, 1970 SOUND ACTUATED FLUID FLOW CONTROL APPARATUS 2 Claims, 3 Drawing Figs.

U.S. Cl l37/624.1l, 84/464, 239/17, 251/282 Int. Cl Fl6k 31/44 Field of Search 137/6241 1,

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 10/1934 Patterson .f. 239/17ux 4/1957 Pazystawik 84/464X 2/1958 Christoph..... 137/82X 1/1965 Pribyl 239/17X 12/1966 Kawamura et a1 239/17 FOREIGN PATENTS 1/1966 Great Britain 84/464 Primary Examiner- Billy S. Taylor Altomey- Edward Eversley Bishop ABSTRACT: A fluid flow control system for use with fountains and the like having a valve balanced to remain closed under varying fluid pressure at the inlet and outlet of the valve with a transducer adapted to open the valve and an electronically amplified sound source to actuate the transducer.

Patented Sept. 29, 1970 Sheet 1 of 2 N v a /'o R Patented Sept. 29, 1970 Sheet 2 of 2 INVE N'To R C CAL C'hg VE SLEY 6/51101 PUT/1mm SOUND ACTUATED FLUID FLOW CONTROL APPARATUS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION l. Field of the Invention Valves to control fluid flow and balanced to remain in the closed position under varying fluid pressures at the input and output of the valves. The valves are adapted to be opened by the movement of a transducer actuated by an electronic audio amplifier.

2. Description of the Prior Art Prior art devices in this field, where columns of water are pulsed and swayed in time with music, are known commercially as dancing waters. Apparatus for an installation such as this uses a complex array of valves and pipes which are associated mechanically with a musical keyboard so that valves will be opened as music is played at the keyboard and jets of water discharged in time with the music.

To apply the principle of a valve controlling a jet of water in a simple fountain in time with a musical selection, I used an amplified signal from a record player or other source and used this signal to control a valve so that water flow through the valve would be varied.

While I was able to provide musical powers sufficient to operate a valve, l was not able to find a valve that would operate satisfactorily to vary the water flow to the fountain as desired.

Briefly, I found that present day valves whether solenoid operated, butterfly type or slide type valves, operate only in a simple on-off manner or were adversely affected by water pressure. In other words, if attempts were made to adjust the valves so that they would respond to small changes in actuating force, the valves would not remain closed under changes in water pressure. Further, the friction between the moving portions of these valves was so high that the use of such valves for my purpose was not possible.

SUMMARY In accordance with this invention, a sound actuated fluid flow control system including valve means is adapted to be operated by a transducer actuated by the output of an electronic audio amplifier. The valve means is balanced to reduce the effect of varying fluid pressures at the inlet and outlet of the valve means and the effect of friction on the operation of the valve is reduced so that the valve will respond to small changes in activating force.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. I is a side elevation partly in section of a valve constructed in accordance with my invention and connected to a transducer actuating mechanism.

FIG. 2 is a view from the right hand side of the valve shown in FIG. 1, again partly in section and with the activating mechanism removed.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a conventional electronic audio amplifier modified in accordance with my invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THEPREFERRED EMBODIMENT Broadly speaking my invention consists of the valve means A, the transducer B for operating the valve means A and the means C for actuating the transducer B.

The valve means A includes the housing I which is adapted to be secured in an upright position on the angle iron 2 by the holding screws 3. The angle iron 2 is secured as by welding on the brackets 4 which are fixed to the transducer B.

The housing 1 includes upper and lower end plates and 16 which are spaced inwardly from the ends ofthe housing I. The end plates 15 and I6 are each formed with central apertures 17 in which reduced friction bearing sleeves 17A, preferably of Teflon or other suitable material are secured.

An inlet compartment 19 is located in the housing 1 between the end plates 15 and 16. The inlet compartment 19 is formed from end plates 25A and 26A secured to the walls 1A, IC and ID of the housing 1 with a side wall 19A interconnecting the ends 25A and 26A and spaced from the wall 18 of the housing to provide a channel 22 around the inlet compartment 19.

The locating of the inlet compartment 19 between the end plates 15 and 16 divides the housing 1 into an upper outlet compartment 20 and a lower outlet compartment 21 jointed by the channel 22. A fluid inlet 23 in the side of the housing 1 discharges fluid into the inlet compartment 19 while a fluid outlet 24 allows the discharge of fluid from the upper outlet compartment 20.

Axially aligned upper and lower orifices 25 and 26 are formed in the ends 25A and 26A of the inlet compartment 19. The orifices 25 and 26 are coaxial with the central apertures 17 in the upperand lower end plates 15 and 16v The orifices 25 and 26 are provided with valve seats 27 and 28 respectively and a cone valve 29 is adapted to seat on the valve seat 27 while a cone valve 30 is adapted to seat on the valve seat 28.

The cone valves 29 and 30 are mounted on the shaft 18 which extends through Teflon bearing 17A in the apertures 17 in the end plates 15 and 16.

Cone valve 29 is outside the inlet compartment 19 while the cone valve 30 is inside the inlet chamber 19. As a result, fluid pressure in the inlet chamber 19 will act to open cone valve 29 and to close cone valve 30. Conversely, fluid pressure in outlet chambers 20 and 21 will act to close cone valve 29 and to open cone valve 30. Also, the shaft I8 joining the valves 29 and 30, insures that the valves 29 and 30 will open and close simultaneously.

At its lower end, the shaft 18 is formed with a cap 29 while at its upper end, the shaft I8 is connected at 30 to one end of the spring 31. Spring 31 is connected at its upper end to arm 32 extending across the top of housing 1. Arm 32 is secured at 33 to housing I and an adjustment screw 34 in engagement with a nut 35 on housing I is provided to permit adjustment of arm 32, tensioning of spring 31 and biasing of the valves 29 and 30 to the closed position.

In the embodiment illustrated, the transducer B is a moving coil type transducer such as a modified dynamic loudspeaker which has the conventional loudspeaker cone and basket removed. The portions remaining include the frame 5, magnet 6 and voice coil 7 on voice coil form 8. Leads 9 and 10 from the voice coil 7 may be connected to a suitable sound source for actuation of the transducer. A brass plate 11 secured to voice coil form 8, provides a mounting for the upright shaft I2 which extends through a suitable Teflon or other low friction bearing 13 in the angle iron 2. Shaft 12 terminates in a cap 14 which butts against the cap 29 of shaft 18.

The means to actuate the transducer B may be a conventional audio amplifier. One form is illustrated in FIG. 3 in the drawings.

The amplifier illustrated includes a conventional double triode input stage for both microphone and phonograph inputs and a single pentode output stage. Both the triode input and pentode output stages are conventional in form and circuitry. Typical values for coupling and bypass capacitors and resistors are indicated.

Since the valve means A is normally in the closed position and it is desired to only move the valve to the open position it is necessary to move the transducer B only in one direction, that is to say, to open the valve means A. This is accomplished by taking the audio signal from the output of the audio amplifier, rectifying the signal through the rectifier 40 to develop a pulsating negative voltage across the condenser 41. This voltage then is fed to the voice coil leads 9 and I0 and since it is a DC. voltage or. will move the transducer B only in the one direction to open the valve means A against the biasing action of spring 31.

It was found that with amplifier sensitivity that would actuate the transducer B to open the valves 29 and 30 music passages of low volume and so there would be a flow of water through the valves corresponding to the music, valves 29 and 30 would be fully open longbefore high volumes in the music were reached. This is understandable because the ratio of high to low volumes in music can be in the order of 1,000,000 to 1.

To enable the transducer B to operate the valve through the loudest to softest volumes of music, it was found necessary to apply compression to the amplifier. This was accomplished by applying the negative voltage from the silicon rectifier 40 through the 50,000 ohm potentiometer 42 to the bottom end of the grid return resistor 43 in the input stage of the amplifier. The resistor 43 then is returned to ground through the coupling condenser 44 to prevent any audio signal from reaching the grid of the input stage. This modification to the amplifier was found to provide an effective automatic gain control circuit variable through the variable resistance 42 to provide the required compression to the amplifier.

It was also found necessary to superimpose a small A.C. component on the pulsating negative voltage fed to the voice coil leads 9 and 10. This small A.C. component results in the transducer B being in an extremely small but constant longitudinal vibratory condition and, through the connection of the cap s l4and 29 will result in the valves 29 and 30 being in vibratorycondition, although smaIlQwasfouHd sufiicient to overcome any residual friction in the transducer B and the valve means A. The small A.C. component is taken from'the 6.3 volt filament supply for the amplifier and passed through the variable resistance 45, to the line 46 connected to the voice coil leads 9 and 10.

To operate the apparatus: it is assembled with valve inlet 23 connected to a source of fluid under pressure and valve outlet 24 connected to a fountain or similar device. With valve means A mounted on transducer B, spring 31 is adjusted to force shaft 18 downwardly until it just displaces voice coil 8 of transducer B. Additional vernier adjustment of screw 34 will render valve means A dead beat between the spring 31 and the compliance of transducer B and with intimate contact between caps 14 and 29. Any movement of voice coil 8 of the transducer B thereafter will open valves 29 and .30 and allow fluid flow through valve means A to the fountain or similar device.

The transducer B is of course, connected to the actuating means C which would have recorded other sound directed to the appropriate input; 1

I claim:

1. A sound actuated fluid flow control apparatus comprising, in combination:

A valve comprising: a housing having a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet, an inlet compartment connected to the fluid inlet and an outlet compartment connected to the fluid outlet, such inlet compartment having a pair of valve openings connecting the inlet and outlet compartments, a pair of valves, one controlling each valve opening, such valves positioned so that fluid pressure in the inlet compartment will act to open one valve and close the other valve, means linking the valves together to form a valve unit and to ensure simultaneous opening and closing of the valves, adjustablebiasing means, connected to the valve unit, for biasing the valves to the closed position;

a moving coil type transducer, connected to the valve unit,

adapted to give linear displacement; and

an electronic audio amplifier connected to the transducer for actuation thereof.

2. A sound actuated fluid flow control apparatus comprising, in combination:

A valve comprising: a housing having a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet, an inlet compartment connected to the fluid inlet and an outlet compartment connected to the fluid outlet, such inlet compartment having a pair of valve openings connecting the inlet and outlet compartments, said outlet compartment having openings at each end thereof, a pair of valves, one controlling each valve opening, such valves positioned so that fluid pressure in the inlet compartment Will act to open one valve and close the other valve,-a

stem linking the valves together to form a valve unit and ensure simultaneous opening and closing of the valves, said stem extending through the outlet compartment openings, a third chamber defined in one end of the housing, adjustable biasing means, mounted in the third chamber and connected to one end of the stem, for biasing the valves to the closed position;

a moving coil type transducer, connected to the valve stem,

adapted to give linear displacement; and

an electronic audio amplifier connected to the transducer for actuation thereof. 

